The Prague Vintage Fair is an annual fashion event which presents authentic
vintage clothing in the context of contemporary fashion trends. Now in its
third year the fair will revolve around a “Dress for Love” theme
inspired by the film The cook, the thief, his wife and her lover by Peter
Greenaway. So if you thought vintage rules out sexy – pay a visit to the
Prague Vintage Fair on 26th and 27th of September 2015 at the New Town
Hall. I spoke to model and project manager Nora Barnhart about what’s in
store for visitors this year and how the idea to hold a vintage fair in
Prague emerged.

Nora Barnhart, photo: Jiří Němec
“There was something missing here, there are a lot of vintage stores in
Prague but what was missing was something that would bring it all together,
highlight the beauty of vintage items that can be found in the Czech
Republic and abroad –so that inspired us to create an event of this
kind.”

So what does the vintage fair involve?

“It is a sales gallery of vintage items, but it is also a festival of
vintage and sustainable fashion and what we are trying to show is not just
that vintage fashion is beautiful and we should invest in it but that it is
easy to combine with today’s fashion and people should care about it more
than they do. Because all the things that you buy now in the fashion stores
–the quality is low, the price is low and everybody has the same thing,
but when you invest in something beautiful from the 1950s it makes you
happy because it is something with a story. That’s what we try to show
– the story of the item and how to wear it today, how to combine it with
present-day fashion.”

So where do you get the clothes and brooches and shoes and things that I
saw?

“We asked most of the Czech vintage stores that are here in Prague and
around the country for cooperation and we also have people calling to tell
us that they have a huge collection of vintage clothes and they want to get
rid of it, or for instance, there is this lady who contacted us and said
she had stuff from her mother and grandmother that she cannot wear because
the sizes are very small but she would like to see it exhibited somewhere
because the clothes are beautiful masterpieces. So people contact us, we
find the stuff somewhere or collect it….and the vintage fair is not just
about vintage fashion, it is about contemporary designers who also have
stands there so you can find vintage and contemporary fashion as well.”

“When you invest in something beautiful from the 1950s it makes you
happy because it is something with a story”

So you cooperate with today’s leading fashion designers?

“Yes, exactly and there is going to be a fashion show on Saturday, the
26th for which we asked nine designers to make between one and three
outfits and there will be an auction afterwards. The theme of the fashion
show is Dress for Love …”

Yes, I noticed that this year’s theme is quite provocative for a vintage
dress fair – I sort of expected high necklines and lots of buttons, but
this is quite different…. so what inspired you to select this theme?

“It was Tereza Schmoranz ’s idea –she is an amazing woman who always
comes up with a poetic idea or interesting theme and my task is to bring it
to life. So what inspired her is the movie The cook, the thief, his wife
and her lover by Peter Greenaway. It is a very artistic movie, it is
visually very interesting and what we loved about it is that Jean Paul
Gaultier designed the costumes for it. So the inspiration is from that
movie where the main character, the thief, is abusing his wife and she
finds shelter in the arms of her lover. And she has to think about what to
wear so she can undress easily and get dressed again fast so that her
husband doesn’t notice anything. So that is the main theme of the
festival and also what we told the designers to do – to make a dress for
love, also a dress where the abused woman can find love for herself again
and feel confident and find love somewhere else.”

So – clothes that are sexy and …easy to take off…

Photo: Jan Paravan / Prague Vintage Fair
“Yes, exactly, the main idea was for them to be easy to take off, but
they also had to have something vintage – the material used or the
cut…..or a brooch or something. What we are trying to do is not just show
vintage with make-up and hair and so on, but we are trying to put it in the
present-day and show that even nowadays you can wear vintage and look good
and that it is not uncomfortable like some people think. ”

You probably need to have a very self-confident woman who is able to carry
it off…

“It is interesting that you mention this because this year for the first
time we are using not just professional models but normal women on the
runway, women of different ages and different sizes. I am doing the
choreography of the show and we will have –among others – a
ninety-year-old lady. We chose these women because they inspired us with
their personality. Each designer did a completely different dress
–obviously – and we want to put them on very different types of women
to show that anybody can be beautiful and I want them to be themselves, I
do not want them to be like the models you see on runways nowadays with
their zombie walk and look. It will be like a classical fashion show with
some theatre, some drama and I think they are all going to be beautiful and
it will be a nice experience.”

So the dresses are romantic as well as being sexy…

“We are trying to show that even nowadays you can wear vintage and look
good and that it is not uncomfortable like some people think. ”

“Yes, it is not vulgar. There are two lingerie sets by designer Tereza
Vu and they are sexy but in a really nice way. ”

I think we should also say what the proceeds are used for because this
goes to help abused women –does it not?

“Exactly, after the fashion show there will be an auction at which all
the outfits will be auctioned off and the money raised will go to Rosa, an
organization that helps abused women – so again an inspiration from the
movie I was talking about and we tried to find another way of helping.”

What kind of things can people buy at this fair?

“They can buy mainly vintage items from the 1920s up to the 1980s, but
there will also be some contemporary artists or brands, like PunkTura,
that’s a young lady using second-hand clothes and vintage stuff and
re-doing them by adding some details, or we will have the Nora Lee brand,
that specializes in hand-embroidered sweaters inspired by the 1950s and
many more, like jewelry, handbags, there is so much you can see there and
also buy.”

This is the third vintage fair and I was going to ask what kind of people
come, because last year I noticed that the people who came to buy were
already dressed in vintage….

“Oh, yes, that’s what I really love about it, because the people
really dress up and it is like an event, to show off and to show that they
love vintage and they like to dress this way. So mainly I would say it is
for women but there will also be some stalls selling men’s clothes and I
am trying to get my brother to come over from Vienna and get some nice
stuff. But it is for any age, for anybody, because vintage is trendy now, a
lot of people like it and a lot of people look for it, so it is pretty much
for everybody.”

Photo: Jan Paravan / Prague Vintage FairWe should say that you yourself are beautifully dressed in vintage style,
there is a flower in your hair –I am sure that you get many admiring
looks in the street – how does it make you feel to dress this way?

“Thank you for the compliment. I like to dress like a female. I love
slender waists and so on. I don’t know about admiring glances in the
street because I don’t wear my glasses so I can’t see much (laughs) but
this style makes me feel self-confident and I like it. But, as I said we
are not encouraging people to dress all-vintage, we are trying to show them
how to combine it, that they can wear jeans and a vintage blouse, that they
can get a unique piece that they could have forever.”